'Emotional Support Troops': Hochul's Subway Plan Draws Fury, Mockery

NEW YORK CITY — Emotional Support Troops. Psy-oops. Martial law.

Those were just some ways New Yorkers and others raked Gov. Kathy Hochul over the coals for her admittedly fact-free deployment Wednesday of 750 National Guard troops to perform bag checks in the city's subway system.

The backlash grew even as violence incidents in the subway — including an MTA conductor walloped with a glass bottle in The Bronx just an hour after Hochul's announcement — drew headlines.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said the Bronx incident showed the shortcomings of Hochul's response to high-profile, but still rare, instances of transit violence.

"The latest violent assault on an MTA employee, done with a bottle, clearly demonstrates two things -- we are not doing enough to keep our transit workers safe, and the idea that deploying the National Guard to check bags will prevent these kinds of incidents is misguided," he said in a statement to Patch.

"Uniformed personnel searching bags is an ineffective use of state and national resources that could be better spent improving subway infrastructure or addressing public safety at its root."

Hochul's National Guard deployment came in response to a spate of eye-catching violent incidents in the subway, including two shootings in The Bronx, an MTA conductor slashed in the neck and a man kicked onto the tracks.

But recently released crime statistics showed that felony assaults — at least those that were reported to police — actually were no different this February compared to the same month last year. Transit crime actually fell 15 percent overall, after January saw 45 percent increase driven by non-violent larcenies, mostly pickpocketing of drunken or sleeping straphangers, officials said.

Historical data first highlighted by HellGateNYC showed also shows that serious crimes in the subway system have fallen 63 percent since 1997.

Hochul, for her part, spent Thursday morning doubling down on her feelings over facts stance.

"I'm not going to talk about statistics," she said during an interview with "Good Day New York."

"I'm going to talk about feelings and emotions and the psychology of a city. I want more people on the subways."

And violence in the subway against straphangers and MTA workers alike has happened.

Notably, roughly an hour after Hochul's announcement, an as-yet-unidentified man hit an MTA subway conductor in the face with a glass bottle on a 4 train heading into the 167th Street station, police said.

The attack left the conductor — a 38-year-old woman — with a minor injury to her face, authorities said.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Thursday that two people were indicted in separate assaults on an MTA worker in Wall Street station and a bus driver at South Ferry Whitehall Terminal.

But even as those incidents crept into the public eye, many New Yorkers still didn't appear on board with having troops in their subway stations.

"Martial law" trended on X, formerly known as Twitter, after Hochul's announcement.

Even NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell appeared to criticize Hochul's plan. He tweeted that transit crime has been down 12 percent in the past five weeks.

"Our transit system is not a 'war' zone!" he tweeted.

Video showing National Guard troops checking bags in Grand Central drew eye online eye rolls.

"(No) one wants this except long islanders who've never set food on a subway platform," one user posted in response to a widely seen video.

Other X users mocked Hochul's admission that the deployment is more about psychology than safety.

"Ayyy, I'm feelin' unsafe here!" one tweeted.

"Psy-oops," another responded.

Another labeled the situation as this: "Emotional Support Troops."